Rotifer adaptation to environmental unpredictability

2017

Environmental unpredictability is a phenomenon that occurs in any habitat, and is an important selection pressure for the evolution of adaptive responses in the organisms. Interestingly, the ponds located in the Mediterranean region are characterized by having a high degree of seasonality and uncertainty at various temporal scales. Unpredictability in natural populations can act on several organism traits, especially in those species with complex life histories. The rotifer Brachionus plicatilis is a zooplankton species that frequently inhabits the salt ponds of the Mediterranean region. It has a type of reproduction in which proliferation by parthenogenesis (asexual phase) combines with oc…